Civil War 125th Anniv. "Battle of Vicksburg" 1988 - Re-enacting Retro

[Music] [Music] grant had not yet attained the stature that he would enjoy later in the war although he had attracted the attention of President Lincoln his immediate superior Henry Halleck felt that he had botched the affair at Shiloh and was casting about for someone to replace him Grant wrote later I became a department commander because no one was assigned to that position over me unable to find a suitable successor Alec reluctantly permitted him to retain his command and in October of 1862 grant requested and received permission to go after the city of Vicksburg in early 1863 the southern leadership put Joseph Johnston in command of the Confederate forces in the West Johnston was a familiar name to the troops he had commanded the principal Eastern army until wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines outside of Richmond in direct command of the forces at Vicksburg was John C Pemberton Pemberton generally favored a passive defensive posture to protect Vicksburg in this he was supported by the southern President Jefferson Davis himself a Mississippi native Johnston disagreed and called for more aggressive action against grants Army in the field these differences of command opinion would effectively [ __ ] the southern efforts to evolve a unified and coordinated strategy against the Yankee army and grant Farragut's attempt at naval assault on the fortified city were a complete failure although he did demonstrate that the heavy guns crowning the 300-foot bluffs could be passed by naval vessels without catastrophic loss the passage would be tried again soon and more than once the most obvious route to Vicksburg was overland along the Mississippi Central Railroad and attacked the city from the eastern or land side Earl Van Dorn's southern cavalry cut this campaign short by raiding into Grant's rear and destroying his supply base at Holly Springs grant would have to try something else the campaign's that swirled around Vicksburg between December 1862 in July of 1863 can be roughly divided into three stages the first of these was a combined Army and Navy attack on the rugged area north of Vicksburg known as Chickasaw bluffs David Dixon Porter led a flotilla of gunboats and transports down the Mississippi in hopes of surprising the Confederates at the bluffs before they could mount an effective defense the transports carried 30,000 troops under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman a West Point graduate Mexican War veteran and likely grants most trusted subordinate under cover of night on Christmas Eve Sherman and Porter slid silently towards their objective only to find Steven D Lee and 25,000 Confederates waiting for them having been warned by a telegraph operator upriver Sherman's subsequent attacks were soundly repulsed and the Confederate position was never seriously threatened the Federals pulled out without trying again the first round had gone to the Confederates the second phase of grants attempts to capture Vicksburg could be collectively termed the Bayou expeditions grant called them experiments and for two and a half months he and his army would criss cross the swamps and lowlands surrounding the city looking for a way around the daunting defenses the first of these attempts centered around a project begun nearly a year earlier by the first federal commander in the area General Thomas Williams in an attempt to bypass the Vicksburg fortifications altogether Williams started digging a canal through the base of the peninsula just across the river from the city grant revived this effort and for two months federal soldiers labored in the winter rains and cold to widen and deepen the channel and hunting cooperative River and Confederate guns ultimately frustrated the Yankees and the project was abandoned the second attempts took a different tack up River from Vicksburg was Lake Providence which lay about halfway between the Mississippi and a series of smaller waterways that led 470 miles down the Louisiana side exiting 250 miles south of Vicksburg grant was confident that channels could be cut between the Mississippi and the lake and westward to the bayou he put one of his corps commanders James McPherson in charge of the project a very experienced engineer McPherson nonetheless encountered formidable obstacles in the form of giant cypress trees that had to be removed after two months of agonizingly slow progress and back-breaking labor grant reluctantly ordered this project also abandoned it was now February 1863 and grant was no closer to his goal than when he had started he stated later that he had felt it better to keep the men employed and an idol despite the dubious chances for success during any of the Bayou experiments he now found new employment for them the Yazoo River runs parallel to the Mississippi and just east of it a levee separated the two rivers erected to prevent excessive flooding the Federals proposed to open the levee and send transports and gunboats down the Yazoo to land north of the bluffs that Sherman had run up against a few months before this would permit them to attack the city from the east the direction which held the best chance of success the levee was blown on February 2nd and the expeditionary force set out a few days later once again grant had hoped to surprise the Confederates but Pemberton showed that he was alert the federal boats immediately ran into felled trees and other obstacles placed in their path finally the Yankees ran up against a sandbagged position called fort Pemberton as the federal boats approached they were blasted fiercely and turned back the fort was surrounded by ground too swampy to be assaulted from the shore and the Union forces were left with no choice but to retreat yet another round had gone to the Confederates on the river meanwhile Admiral Porter was doing his part in establishing control over the waterways together with the young Colonel Charles elet he set out to halt the Confederate commerce on the Red River elet sailed the Queen of the West up the red and attacked rebel shipping destroying three steamers then she ran aground and had to be abandoned the Confederates repaired the captured vessel and used it to seriously damage and capture the Union gunboat Indianola a few weeks later order responded by disguising an old coal barge as a gunboat and floating it down the river at night the Confederates were completely fooled by this ruse and destroyed the Indianola rather than allow it to be recaptured by the time they discovered the Yankees trick it was too late to save the real gunboat the final effort in Grant's Bayou expeditions was the attempt to bypass the defenses on the bluffs north of Vicksburg by sailing up Steele's Bayou flooded conditions and the surrounding woods gave the project some promise but the Confederates were alert and grant was once again forced to turn back in the face of determined resistance grant gave up on the bayou routes and as the weather gradually warmed he planned and set in motion one of the masterful campaigns of the war the campaign for Vicksburg now entered its third and final phase he was aided in his execution by the lack of the unified command among the Confederate leadership John Pemberton and Joseph Johnston together commanding in the neighborhood of 60,000 troops could not agree on a strategy to oppose grant grant in turn masterfully mounted a series of diversions that further confounded the rubble and prevented concentration of the forces against him one of these involved a 36 year old cavalry officer named Benjamin grierson grant ordered him to lead 1,700 men in a raid through the heart of Mississippi 16 days later he rode into Baton Rouge after capturing five hundred prisoners destroying between fifty and sixty miles of railroad track and generally leading his southern pursuers on a merry chase Grierson had proven that federal forces could operate inland without the supply line grant decided to try this approach with his entire command marching down the western side of the Mississippi crossing at Grant Gulf and striking inland in a north easterly direction living off the land to Jackson and then turning west to attack Vicksburg from the land side Pemberton was in Vicksburg with about 30,000 troops determined to hold the city against any assault Joe Johnston was in Jackson attempting to raise another 25 thousand troops to reinforce Pemberton but not by joining him behind the fortifications but by being outside the walls able to strike grant if and when he saw the opportunity he never did indeed instead of grant becoming his target he became grants before grant could strike either Confederate Army he had to cross the river and reduce the rebel garrison at Grand Gulf once again Porter's gunboats were sent downriver to attack this dangerous little fort from the water side Porter's guns proved ineffective against the fortifications of Grand Gulf however and grant was forced to land downstream moving north federal troops were confronted by a force of 5500 Confederates under John Bowen a former neighbor of grants the Confederates used the difficult terrain to their advantage and managed to delay grants advance for a full day but one day would not amount to much more than additional casualties in this campaign the following day advancing Yankees made the Grand Gulf position untenable and the Confederates abandoned it the river fort of Port Hudson proved more obstinate however and continued to stand against the federal troops of Nathaniel banks even as grants men began leaving the area grant was anxious to begin his advance and he wasted little time Scofield was ordered to pursue the retreating rebels and rear echelon troops ordered up at the double the chase was on and the clock was ticking for the Confederates in Vicksburg Pemberton was unsure of what to do grants diversions had him sending troops in all directions most of the detachments were small however and unable to accomplish much except reconnaissance in force one of these a brigade of 2,500 men under brigadier John Gregg was suddenly confronted by the 10,000 men of Schofield 17th Corps near the town of Raymond Mississippi despite a spirited resistance the contest which raged around 14 Mile Creek was quickly decided in the Federals favor the blue columns continued towards the key point of Jackson Johnston still weak from a recent illness and outnumbered opted to withdraw and fight a delaying action the rearguard once again in Greg's capable hands resisted Scofield's attacks as long as they could before retiring from the field grant now intercepted a message from Johnston to Pemberton urging him to come out from behind his works and join him in attacking the federal forces between them Tom Burton procrastinated grant prepared finally the Confederates marched and the two sides met on a hill belonging to CID champion the fight on champions Hill was the bloodiest engagement yet and left over 6,000 casualties from both sides of the field Pemberton had failed to make the connection with Johnston and was thus outnumbered by the Federals his thin defensive line was pierced quickly and only a counter-attack by John Bowen prevented a complete disaster hours of stand up killing followed until finally the superior union numbers spelled the decision Pemberton withdrew and grant was one step closer to the city of Vicksburg itself only one viable defensive position remained between Pemberton and Vicksburg and that was along the banks of the Big Black River ten miles west of champions Hill the rebel rearguard sleepy dispirited and tired of the chase were no match for the Yankees whose recent successes had bolstered their morale the Federals crashed into the weak defense and captured over 1700 prisoners as well as inflicting 200 casualties that Pemberton could ill afford the remnants of the southern army retreated into the city and reoccupied the powerful defensive line protected by the formidable works and now reinforced by the ten thousand troops that Pemberton had left behind the Confederates were transformed when Grant attacked 48 hours later he was rudely greeted on May 19th grant launched an all-out assault with his entire army having recovered their fighting spirit the southerners smashed France advancing columns all down the line grant and Sherman's set their men to building siege works but the men wanted another try on May 22nd just three days after the first attack another assault was launched this one was preceded by an artillery bombardment only a few units achieved any more success than they had a few days earlier the Federals lost 3,200 men as compared to the Confederates 500 grant finally concluded that Vicksburg could not be taken by storm undoubtedly frustrated and unhappy about the prospect of a siege he is reported to have said we'll have to dig our way in the siege that followed priests aged a new kind of warfare one that grant would wage with fatal success the following year in Virginia for now though it consisted of innovation and tedium as the Bluecoats sought ways to penetrate the gray wall surrounding the city the Confederate defensive works were strong and represented the latest in engineering advances an attacking enemy would first encounter pointed steaks or felled trees with their branches sharpened behind these were rifle pits then a deep ditch then a high wall crowned with a parapet from which enemy infantry and artillery could fire with little danger to themselves and behind which they could conceal their numbers in addition readouts or forts were constructed at strategic points along the line to provide a flanking fire to one side or the other and to mount additional artillery all-in-all frontal assaults even with the best of troops were unlikely to succeed and were guaranteed to be costly to counter these attacking forces built their own line of trenches artillery emplacements and shelters to affect a protected approach to the fortifications a series of zigzag trenches would be dug towards the enemy from these an attack could move close enough to the lines to assault from close range minimizing casualties and improving the chances of success grant also brought in heavy mortars whose arching fire could shoot over the parapets of the enemy and in the case of Vicksburg River gunboats were able to add their weight of guns to any long Bartman at one point grants engineers even tried digging a tunnel under the Confederate lines and exploding a mine the resulting crater created a breach in the through which the Union soldiers poured but the rebels had heard them digging and pulled back before the attack now they counter-attacked and the federal assault was repulsed except for the occasional interludes the siege was essentially one continuous bombardment the Union forces eventually had two hundred guns pounding the Confederate City whose citizens took refuge in caves for nearly two months the guns rarely see stood inside the city food ran out other supplies also soon disappeared horses mules and even dogs were being sold as meat fresh water supplies subjected to the strain of 30,000 soldiers as well as the local population soon gave out by the end of June the Confederate soldiers were down to one biscuit and a few mouthfuls of bacon a day such conditions could not prevail for very long Pemberton knew that his men and the residents of the city could not endure the onset of starvation just as grant decided to make another assault and Johnston whose 25,000 troops still lay near Jackson finally elected to come to Pemberton's relief the Confederate commander in Vicksburg decided that enough was enough on July the 3rd 1863 as Pickett's brave men were stumbling back from their immortal charge at Gettysburg Confederate General John Bowen wrote forward under the flag of truce to arrange a conference between grant and Pemberton grants terms for surrender at first harsh and uncompromising were later softened and allowed the parole of nearly all Pemberton's troops they could return home if they took an oath not to take up arms against the Union again thirty thousand laid down their arms the Mississippi was in Union hands and the Confederacy had been severed from top to bottom the combination of the demoralizing loss of the Mississippi and the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg coming simultaneously had dealt the south a stunning double blow although it would be two more years before the fighting would finally stop the summer of 1863 must have seemed as prophecy of the inevitability of the outcome to many in the Confederacy President Lincoln summed up the feelings of many when he wrote to Grant following the surrender My dear general I do not remember that you and I ever met personally I write this now as a grateful acknowledgement for the almost inestimable service you have done in the country when you turned northward east of the big black I feared it was a mistake I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong [Music] Johnston retreated quickly to Jackson Port Hudson surrendered and for the remainder of the war the father of waters flowed as Lincoln put it unmet to the sieve [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thanks for watching if you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening

Channel: LionHeart FilmWorks

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Keywords: american civil war, american history, americana, americans, battle, battlefield, blue & grey, civil war, combat, confederates, conflict, csa, federal army, historical, johnny reb, living history, military history, north and south, rebel flag, rebels, reenacting, re-enacting, reenactors, re-enactors, soldiers, southerners, u.s. army, union army, war, war between the states, yankees, u.s. grant, classic images, vicksburg, siege, surrender, mississippi, confederate defeat, key to the mississippi, 125th

Id: nr8_IcJ8Sic

Length: 27min 11sec (1631 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 30 2019